OUR VIEW: Rail delay unacceptable

Sunday

A 10-month delay in the environmental review of the proposed SouthCoast Rail Initiative is unacceptable.

A 10-month delay in the environmental review of the proposed SouthCoast Rail Initiative is unacceptable.

The Army Corps of Engineers is blaming the Environmental Protection Agency for a slew of requests for information that will determine which of the three selected alternatives — through Stoughton, through Attleboro or via a dedicated bus along Route 24 — is most environmentally suitable and practical.

The delay was announced last week by senior project manager Alan Anacheka-Nasemann of the Army Corps, whose report had been due way back on Labor Day. More than eight weeks after missing that deadline, the Army Corps finally came clean that it would not be done before June.

This is disgraceful.

It is the sort of bureaucratic delay that threatens to derail this project, which is of critical importance to the economic well-being of the cities of New Bedford and Fall River, along with other communities along the line from SouthCoast to South Station in Boston.

The only way to address the delay is through our elected representatives in Washington, especially Rep. Barney Frank and Sens. John Kerry and Paul Kirk, whose ability to cajole, embarrass and squeeze budgets makes a difference to Washington policymakers.

The delegation is best able to find answers to this latest bureaucratic logjam and get the project back on track for its 2016 scheduled completion date.

Southeastern Massachusetts has long had to endure being bypassed when the important things get done in Massachusetts. The region is unwilling to wait longer while regulatory agencies do battle against one another.

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